What happened today, Monday 31 May
And with that, another hectic day of news comes to an end. Here’s everything that went down today:
- Christian Porter has dropped his defamation case against the ABC, but sought to claim victory despite failing to secure an apology or retraction from the public broadcaster.
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Victoria recorded 11 new cases overnight, including the six that emerged after midnight Monday, bringing active infections in the state to 60.
- Three new cases were linked to the Arcare Maidstone aged care facility, with four aged care facilities now in lockdown.
- The 2021 State of Origin opener will be played in Townsville after the Covid-19 outbreak in Melbourne forced the match to be moved from the MCG.
- Former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull has said Australia can expect to remain in the “freezer” of hostile relations with China for a long time.
- Epidemiologist Prof Mary Louise McLaws said Melbourne’s seven-day lockdown won’t be enough.
- Prime minister Scott Morrison was in New Zealand today, holding press conferences and bilateral talks with NZ leader Jacinda Ardern.
For everyone in Victoria, here is the Guardian’s quick guide to exposure sites and to lockdown rules this time out. Wishing everyone in lockdown luck and strength.
Updated
The ABC has released a statement in response to comments made by Christian Porter earlier today:
The ABC has not said that it regrets the article. As we have stated, the ABC stands by the importance of the article, which reported on matters of significant public interest. The Editor’s Note says: “(B)oth parties accept that some readers misinterpreted the article as an accusation of guilt against Mr Porter. That reading, which was not intended by the ABC, is regretted.
The ABC has never and still does not accept that the article suggested guilt on the part of Mr Porter. The ABC did not plead a truth defence to the “guilt” meaning that Mr Porter alleged in his statement of claim.
The article was not “sensationalist”. It was an accurate and factual report on a letter that had been sent to the Prime Minister and two other senior politicians.
Communications concerning the mediation started before the commencement of the Dyer v Chrysanthou proceedings. It is simply incorrect to suggest that evidence in that case led the ABC to seek mediation.
Mediations are very common in defamation matters, and it is important that all litigant parties seek to explore potential resolution options when they can – especially so for the ABC as a model litigant.
As a public broadcaster, the ABC considered the payment of mediation costs to be a responsible course of action. The resolution reached avoids further significant legal costs.
In relation other comments and statements that have been made:
The only costs paid by the ABC, apart from its own, were mediation and related costs.
Four Corners EP Sally Neighbour did not “lie” when she tweeted that “‘No money was paid”. Ms Neighbour meant that no money was paid to Mr Porter, which is correct. Ms Neighbour quickly clarified her tweet to say that “No damages were paid”.
Updated
Inmates at the Metropolitan Remand Centre in Ravenhall had to be confined to their cells after a staff member had apparently attended a Tier 1 exposure site.
But it turns out the staff member had visited a Tier 2 site, with inmates released since authorities confirmed that detail with the staffer.
They won’t be allowed to return to work until returning a negative result.
All visits to prisons were suspended last week after the state’s lockdown was announced.
Updated
The chairman of the council of small business organisations, Mark McKenzie, has told the ABC there is “not a lot of support” for workers living in lockdown right now.
I think the key issue here is that we have got a situation where the people who’re actually bearing the costs of the lockdown are actually the business owners and the employees that work within those businesses.
It’s almost a sense of unfairness, businesses make decisions and governments make decisions where the cost is both on owners and the employees of those businesses.
We need to get to a standardised procedure of lockdown businesses and support measures and we have those programs running in places like New Zealand. Prior to the lockdown there, the business knows what it’s entitled to, and there are incentives and cash payments provided to the business and to the workers that work within that business.
Queensland politicians are set to receive three pay rises in the next 15 months, after a ruling by the state’s independent remuneration tribunal.
All 93 members of Queensland’s parliament will receive a 2% pay rise in September this year, followed by a rise of 2.25% in March 2022 and 2.5% in September 2022.
The decision comes after the same tribunal decided to freeze pay rises last year because of the pandemic. The ruling outlined that the reason for the rises was that the economy is “rebounding”:
While the economic forecast and outlook continue to remain uncertain as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, it appears that the economy is rebounding.
The outlook is more positive than at the height of the pandemic in 2020 when the salary levels of members were last considered by the tribunal.
MPs had not had a pay increase since 2017, with their pay lagging behind other states.
Under the increases, premier Annastacia Palaszczuk’s annual base salary and additional salary would increase from $399,955 to roughly $427,561 by September next year.
Updated
Mark Dreyfus releases statement on Christian Porter
The shadow attorney general, Mark Dreyfus, has released a statement on the Christian Porter defamation proceedings, saying the decision means the government “no longer has an excuse” to refuse to hold an independent inquiry into the matter.
Only a truly independent inquiry, conducted at arm’s length from government according procedural fairness to Mr Porter and all witnesses appearing before it, will provide an opportunity for the serious allegations against Mr Porter to be tested. Australians must be satisfied that Mr Porter is a fit and proper person to serve in federal cabinet.
As Labor said from day one, Mr Porter’s defamation action was never a substitute for a proper independent examination of Mr Porter’s fitness to serve as a minister.
Contrary to claims made by the prime minister, no investigation into these allegations has ever been concluded. NSW police were unable to conclude their investigation into this matter due to the tragic passing of the woman at the centre of the claims, there has been no investigation by federal police, and no investigation by the prime minister or anyone in his government.
Updated
The global chief executive of AstraZeneca has said Australia is behind in responding to the climate crisis but hoped the country would accelerate its efforts and catch up with the rest of the world.
Pascal Soriot, who is a dual French and Australian citizen, told a webinar organised by environmental organisation Greening Australia that governments needed to put in place “functioning markets around carbon prices” which he said would change behaviours.
Soriot was promoting the company’s environmental credentials, saying the Anglo-Swedish drugmaker had a goal to be carbon neutral by 2025 and be carbon-negative across its supply chain by 2030.
In response to Australia’s Black Summer of bushfires in 2019 and early 2020, AstraZeneca funded a major project to plant 25m trees that will pull down an estimated 4.25m tonnes of CO2 over 25 years.
Soriot said those devastating bushfires had been a “turning point”, adding: “It reminds us that nature is much stronger than we are and if we abuse it we will pay a price.”
The company has become a household name since developing one of several Covid-19 vaccines. Last week the European Commission accused the company of failing to deliver the promised number of doses of its vaccine.
Asked by host, business journalist Ticky Fullerton, about Australia’s global response to the climate crisis and the Morrison government’s refusal to adopt stronger emissions reduction targets, Soriot said it was up to governments to encourage investments that would replace “old technologies and reduce carbon production.”
He said:
I think over time governments will respond to the fact that more and more people are becoming aware of the environment and of the need to act. Australia is a little bit behind I must say. I am sure we will get to a point where things will accelerate in Australia like they are everywhere in the world.”
“There’s a lot Australia can do for itself but also the world in removing carbon from the atmosphere in particular.”
Updated
The Garma festival, one of the largest indigenous gatherings, has been cancelled for Covid reasons.
AAP has the story:
The annual festival held in Gulkula in northeast Arnhem Land was due to run from July 30 to August 2 but organisers the Yothu Yindi Foundation say it’s too risky.
“It is with enormous regret and sadness that we advise this year’s Garma Festival will not proceed,” a spokesman said Monday.
“Unfortunately, the NT’s chief health officer has determined that Gulkula’s remote location poses too many logistical and safety challenges in the unlikely event of a COVID incident.”
These include the lack of quarantine facilities in the remote community, about 1000km by road from Darwin, and the difficulty of evacuating people from the festival, which usually attracts more than 2500 guests each year.
YYF said it had made arrangements for all interstate attendees to be tested upon arrival in Arnhem Land and to provide a 24-hour COVID clinic on-site.
“(We) were confident that these and other safety measures were rigorous enough to all but eliminate the public health risk associated with staging the event,” the spokesman said.
“(But) keeping the region COVID-free has always been YYF’s number one priority, so we accept the CHO’s decision.”
Ticketholders will be reimbursed.
Updated
Melbourne school closes after confirming student has tested positive
A school in Melbourne’s north has shut its doors, after confirming in a letter to parents that a student had tested positive.
Mercy College at Coburg sent out the letter, announcing the school was shut earlier this afternoon.
Although the student was absent for most of last week, following advice from the Department of Health and Melbourne Archdiocese Catholic Schools (MACS), Mercy College Coburg has enacted a preliminary closure from this afternoon, as requested.
This closure will allow time for the school and the DH to work through any contact tracing that may be required.
Precautionary cleaning will also be undertaken.
Earlier today, Covid-19 response commander Jeroen Weimar also flagged that the Willmott Park Primary School in Craigieburn was associated with “possible” cases.
Updated
'It has to go for 14 days': epidemiologist says Melbourne's seven-day lockdown won't be enough
Sticking with the ABC for a bit, Professor Mary Louise McLaws, an epidemiologist, infection control expert and world health organisation advisor has just said she does not anticipate that Victoria will be coming out of lockdown on Friday:
We have a very high, very rapid increase over a short period of time.
I know this lockdown costs a billion a week and that would make the authorities very anxious about extending it but outbreak management usually says, forget about the modelling, but it usually says, if you give it twice an average incubation period, you will have time to flush out a lot of cases.
This is not a small cluster. You would expect to have that if you were going to do it properly, 28 days, sorry, but it has to go certainly for 14 days.
Updated
And we begin with Michele O’Neil, the national president of the Australian Council of Trade Unions, who was on the ABC earlier, discussing the federal government’s reluctance so far to stump up any support for Victorians.
O’Neil addressed the acting PM, calling on the federal government to offer more support.
What I would say to Michael McCormack is he’s not talking to people who have no work and no income and cannot put food on the table and pay the rent this week because they are faced with a lockdown through no fault of their own.
They are trying to do the right thing, and they have been left without support. We are calling on the government to introduce jobkeeper two. The Victorian government support to business is welcome but it is not the same as a wage supplement.
We should be doing everything possible to make sure we support Victorians and of those businesses and workers affected in other states by this lockdown.
Updated
Good afternoon everyone, and a quick thanks to the always amazing Amy Remeikis for guiding us through what has been a hectic day so far. I will be taking you through the evening’s headlines, so without further ado, let’s jump in.
Updated
I am now going to hand you over to the wonderful Mostafa Rachwani to take you through the evening.
A reminder that social media counts as publishing – if you hit tweet or post, you are a publisher too and subject to the same defamation laws as a media company. Just something to keep in mind given today’s news.
Tomorrow, parliament and estimates will be back – and I’ll be there too. Thank you so much to everyone who joined us so far today. Victoria, we are keeping it all crossed for you.
Try and have a lovely night – and take care of you.
Updated
Turnbull says Australia will likely stay in China's 'freezer' for years
In other news:
Former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull has said Australia can expect to remain in the “freezer” of hostile relations with China for a long time, likely years.
“Everyone is unhappy with the state of the relationship between Australia and China at the moment,” Turnbull said. But being put “in the freezer” was a deliberate and conscious policy choice of the Communist party government in China, he said.
They put Australia in the freezer to intimidate Australia and make Australia more compliant.
Turnbull, speaking at the Lowy Institute launch of Red Zone, a new book written by Sydney Morning Herald international editor Peter Hartcher, said the diplomatic deep-freeze was counter-productive for Beijing and had not resulted in compliance from Australia.
Turnbull said much of China’s outrage at Australian statements and decisions – such as introducing foreign interference laws, banning Huawei from the 5G network and pushing for an investigation into the origins of Covid-19 – was “utterly instrumental”, “confected” and “performative”.
There is a tendency for Australians to blame themselves when they encounter anger from Beijing … it plays into the propaganda objectives of the Chinese Community party.
The former prime minister said the foreign interference laws his government passed were not specifically or solely directed at China, but that Beijing was inarguably a key target.
It wasn’t targeted exclusively at China but it was a reaction to extensive Chinese foreign interference and foreign influence operations in Australia, particularly by the United Front Work Department.
Turnbull urged Australia to resolutely – “in a measured, careful way” – stand up to China in defence of Australia’s interests.
Anyone who believes that sycophancy or subservience will win you anything other than contempt from the bullies that are demanding it from you is just utterly naive and wrong.
Updated
Given Mr Porter has dropped his case against the ABC and the inestimable @Milliganreports (💪), we call on all members of Parliament - from the Prime Minister to our newish Prime Minister for Women down - to support @larissawaters' Bill for an inquiry into Kate's allegations. 1/3
— Jo Dyer (@instanterudite) May 31, 2021
Christian Porter has denied all the allegations against him.
Updated
Mark Dreyfus has also responded:
As Labor said from day one, Mr Porter’s defamation action was never a substitute for a proper independent examination of Mr Porter’s fitness to serve as minister in Mr Morrison’s cabinet.
Mr Morrison can no longer hide behind this defamation action and must now explain what action he will take to satisfy Australians that Mr Porter is a fit and proper person to serve as a cabinet minister.
Updated
The ABC has added to its official statement:
The only costs that the ABC will be paying are the mediation costs.
Here is its statement:
Christian Porter has decided to discontinue his defamation action against the ABC and Louise Milligan.
All parties have agreed to not pursue the matter any further. No damages will be paid.
The only costs that the ABC will be paying are the mediation costs.
The ABC stands by the importance of the article, which reported on matters of significant public interest, and the article remains online. It has been updated with this Editor’s Note:
On 26 February 2021, the ABC published an article by Louise Milligan. That article was about a letter to the Prime Minister containing allegations against a senior cabinet minister. Although he was not named, the article was about the Attorney-General Christian Porter.
The ABC did not intend to suggest that Mr Porter had committed the criminal offences alleged. The ABC did not contend that the serious accusations could be substantiated to the applicable legal standard – criminal or civil. However, both parties accept that some readers misinterpreted the article as an accusation of guilt against Mr Porter. That reading, which was not intended by the ABC, is regretted.
The ABC stands by our investigative and public interest journalism, which is always pursued in the interests of the Australian community.
The ABC stands by Louise Milligan, one of Australia’s foremost and most awarded investigative journalists, and all our journalists in their independent and brave reporting on matters about which Australians have a right to be informed.
Updated
Christian Porter ends his press conference with:
I was willing in this trial had it proceeded, which is what the ABC said they wanted to happen, but is not actually what they wanted, I would have said under oath exactly what I said in the press conference and what I am saying now that these allegations simply didn’t happen.
Updated
Christian Porter:
I think that you can never turn the clock back on that sort of reporting and that is why it is so wrong; not just wrong for a politician but for any person who might be subject to the sort of reporting. And that is why when I commenced this action, it was never about gain.
You could never gain from an action like this but what you can do is actually force the public broadcaster to acknowledge that they regret the article that they published. I’ve got to tell you, that is not a simple thing to achieve, because it is the last thing they wanted to say in the world.
Updated
What does Christian Porter think this means for defamation law in Australia?
He says:
I think what it means is most important for Australians. It wouldn’t matter who you are – you could be a politician, a person in business, a sports person – and you could have faced an article like the ones that was written in this manner, which made unbelievably sensational claims around accusations which were based on hearsay.
And it would go completely unchecked. And your career could be destroyed because of that.
And what I did was take on the ABC, to get them to say that they regret the article being drafted in that way and published in that way, to get them to clearly acknowledge and admit that the accusations that they put in the article, which were written in a way that people would assume [guilt], that the accusations could not be proven to any civil standard or any criminal standard.
And what does that do to change the landscape? I think it puts the goalposts back to a position where there must be more reasonable, balanced and fair reporting of matters like this.
And had this action not been taken and they not backed down, that would have been to the detriment of every single Australian, be it a public figure or a politician. It wouldn’t matter who you were or what you did, you would have faced a new standard of presumption of guilt by accusation. And that I think has now had a line drawn under it.
Updated
When asked about costs, Christian Porter says:
Well, those terms about the transmissions or non-transmissions of money are confidential but I have now had four versions of that put to me in the last two minutes.
Isn’t that a funny thing? But the first thing that came out was Sally [Neighbour], who is in the thick of all of this, saying something that she had to pull down within five seconds. Why? Because it was wrong.
I will observe their terms of the agreement, which are confidential ...
Updated
Christian Porter says he will run at the next election:
I am running at the next election, I am committed to my seat for the people I represent, absolutely.
Does he aspire to higher office?
I have aspirations to get on with the job of being a minister. It has been very difficult, no one would want to take on the ABC in defamation, particularly not when they said to me that they would defend this right down to the end. That is what they said to me: be under no misapprehension that the ABC and Louise Milligan are defending this claim.
They are not defending the claim, they came to us and asked us into mediation and are settling the claim. And they are settling the claim on the basis of a statement that they must now affix to the article which says that they regret the outcome of the article and which says that the accusations that were made in that sensationalist way in the article could not be proven to a criminal standard or a civil standard.
Updated
What was Christian Porter’s view of proceedings leading up to this point?
Porter:
My view is that that was pivotal in getting the ABC to seek our consent to go into mediation with them ... That is what got the ABC, forced them to ask us into mediation and has forced them to the point where they have to put up that they regret the outcome of the article on the article, force them to the point where they have to acknowledge that what was said in the article cannot be proven to a civil or criminal standard.
My view is that that shook them.
Updated
Christian Porter:
I never thought that the ABC would settle. I never thought they would say they regret the outcome of the article.
I never thought that they would concede that the accusations that were put in the article could never be proven, could not be proven to the criminal standard or the civil standard.
I did not think, frankly, there was any chance of them making those types of statements to settle this matter.
In fact, I was astonished, last Friday, when they asked us into an urgent mediation.
The people at the heart of this, they will try and spin it all [how] they like ... They have been forced by my taking this action all the way to the court door, they have been forced to say they regret the article.
The ABC have been forced to say that. Louise Milligan has been forced to say that.
Notwithstanding everything they said on Twitter beforehand, the ABC and Louise Milligan have been forced to say that the accusations in the article could not be proven to a civil standard or a criminal standard, so the same people who were calling for some kind of civil hearing have now been forced to say that the accusations would not be proven to a civil standard.
Now, I never thought that the ABC would get to that point but that is the point that they got to.
Updated
Christian Porter:
I do not think this article should ever have been printed and published in the way it was.
It was sensationalist, one-sided, unfair and it is the sort of reporting that any Australian can be subject to unless people stand up to it.
So I brought an action to stand up to that sort of reporting, and the ABC said now they regret the article. That rarely ever happens in those matters.
Updated
Christian Porter:
The ABC ... were respondents, Louise Milligan was a respondent. Louise Milligan has said she regrets the outcome of the article. There is no wriggling around that, no matter how many tweets you put out.
Louise Milligan has said, by the conclusion of this matter, with the ABC being required to put online a statement where they say they regret the outcome of the article, and what was the article they regret? That the way the article was framed led people to a conclusion that they should not have been led to.
Updated
Christian Porter:
People will call for an inquiry or they will not call for an inquiry [but] the ABC itself in their statement not only show regret at the outcome of the article, they themselves say that the accusations would not be proven to the civil standards, and they were the ones that printed the accusations. So if the ABC themselves say they could not be printed to the civil standard, a civil tribunal is not going to be able to show that, and it would not be able to show that because the accusations are wrong ... The things that were alleged to have happened just did not happen.
Updated
Christian Porter:
I am serving in the highest levels of government and I am doing my best by the people in my electorate and the Australian people is serving in those positions but, of course, there is no turning the clock back once someone writes a sensationalist article like this, with allegations that would lead ordinary readers to jump to a conclusion of guilt and what the ABC have said is that they regret that ordinary readers looked at that article and jumped to that conclusion but that clock cannot be wound back.
But had it not been for the fact that I was willing to take on the ABC and no-one particularly wants to do that - does anyone seriously think they would have said they would have regretted the outcome of the article?
Would they have seriously conceded that the accusations contained in their article, notwithstanding what the journalist was saying online and tweeting, that the accusations contained in the article could not be proven to the criminal standard or to the civil standard.
So all of those calls for inquiries to the civil standard, the ABC itself now acknowledges that those accusations could not even be proven to that standard.
Is Christian Porter happy in his new portfolio:
I have always thought that being in Cabinet is a great privilege. It is about serving the Government and the Government is trying to serve the Australian people and there is no turning the clock back and I do not desire that.
What I wanted was the ABC to acknowledge that the language they reported this it was sensationalist and wrong and they have said they regret the outcome of their report.
They have also said that the accusations that they put in the article could not be shown by the criminal or civil stand.
Let me assure you, these are not things I wanted to say. They were not things said by the ABC before I brought these actions but I do not want any old jobs back. I am totally committed to my portfolio and to the Government which is totally committed to the Australian people. I just want to get on with the job.
Updated
Christian Porter addresses media
Christian Porter is claiming victory in his post-court press conference.
He says:
They regret the outcome of that article. That is a humiliating backdown by the ABC, no matter what way they want to spin it ... I think that tells you precisely what you need to know about the sort of journalism we have been dealing with here.
Updated
I know there are questions over who is paying the costs in the now discontinued Christian Porter/ABC defamation case – we are still waiting to find out.
Updated
The NT has new rules for returned travellers.
Via AAP:
Repatriated Australians in the Northern Territory who’ve been in interstate hotel quarantine will now have to be retested for Covid-19 after they leave the facility.
It comes amid fears the new Indian variant of the virus could be spread by returned travellers who have completed their mandatory 14-day quarantine period.
The tests will be required three days after they leave hotel quarantine or on day 17 if they come to the NT, chief minister Michael Gunner told reporters Monday.
He said:
This is a direction that reduces the risk to Territorians from interstate hotel quarantine.
I acknowledge it will be an inconvenience but we’ve always said we’ll do whatever it takes to keep Territorians safe.
People who arrive in the Northern Territory after day 17 but before the 28th day since they entered quarantine will still be required to have a test.
Gunner said:
This new direction will give us protection against the exact scenario that we’ve seen send Melbourne into lockdown again.
That outbreak started from a returned international traveller who completed their 14 days quarantine in South Australia then returned a negative test.
Acting chief medical officer Charles Pain urged Territorians to get vaccinated to protect themselves and the community, saying:
This is critical now, we will continue to be faced with the fear that these outbreaks will spread in our community.
Vaccination is absolutely vital to protect us.
Meanwhile, two sisters have allegedly escaped an Alice Springs quarantine facility by abseiling from their room.
The pair, aged 19 and 22, then jumped the perimeter fence into a waiting vehicle, police commissioner Jamie Chalker said.
I can say they were up on the first floor. They managed to abseil down and work through that, and then up and over a fence to head off.
That’s something that’s very deeply concerning, again noting this is not a prison.
The women were driven to their mother’s home and she later reported them to police.
The women returned to quarantine, accompanied by their mother and one of their boyfriends, a police spokeswoman said.
One of the women was uncooperative when told she would have to go back to the Todd Facility but eventually complied.
Both the mother and boyfriend have also been directed into mandatory supervised quarantine.
Infringements notices have been issued to both women.
The state’s penalty for failing to abide by the chief health officer’s directions is $5,056 for an individual and $25,280 for a business.
Updated
We are still waiting to hear from Christian Porter.
Updated
The 2021 State of Origin opener will be played in Townsville after the Covid-19 outbreak in Melbourne forced the match to be moved from the MCG.
Queensland Country Bank stadium will host the game on 9 June with Victoria in lockdown following the recent emergence of coronavirus cases in the state.
The Australian Rugby League Commission and the Victorian government on Monday approved the relocation of the game, nine days out from the series opener.
The NRL’s CEO, Andrew Abdo, said:
We’re operating in a pandemic and our absolute priority is ensuring the continuity of the competition and our major events.
Townsville has the lowest risk of a Covid outbreak impacting the game and the least financial fallout of the available venues.
Townsville is also a new, state of the art venue, with the capabilities to host an event with a global audience like Origin, placing it ahead of alternate regional locations.
It means Queensland will host two of this year’s three games, with game two scheduled for Brisbane’s Suncorp stadium, before the final match is played at Sydney’s Stadium Australia.
Melbourne will now host games in 2024 and 2026.
Abdo said:
I understand some fans will have wanted a neutral venue but the reality is we are working within a pandemic and we have to make decisions that ensure Origin proceeds as scheduled and with the lowest financial impact on the game.
We’re very disappointed that we can’t open the series at the MCG. We really wanted to bring a major event to Melbourne after everything Victorians have been through over the last year.
Public safety is our absolute priority and given the current outbreak, it remains uncertain whether we could host a mass gathering in Melbourne next week.
Updated
Townsville will host the first State of Origin game next week.
It was meant to be played in Melbourne but the lockdown, and the worry over the cases and exposure sites, means it needed to be moved.
For Townsville, this is HUGE news. You don’t get much more NRL mad than Cowboy country.
Updated
On aged care vaccinations
#breaking Greg Hunt reveals that 85% of aged care residents have taken up vaccines. 99% of centres have been offered vaccinations, there are just 6 facilities nationwide that haven't had a first dose.#auspol
— Paul Karp (@Paul_Karp) May 31, 2021
Louise Milligan has responded:
Christian Porter has discontinued his case. The ABC will pay him no damages. I stand by my journalism & proud to work @4corners & grateful to the ABC & our brilliant legal team for supporting public interest journalism. Thanks, everyone, for your support. https://t.co/1l0h3SjlAQ
— Louise Milligan (@Milliganreports) May 31, 2021
Updated
Back to Greg Hunt for a moment -here he is explaining why the federal government has not done anything to ensure aged care workers in federally funded facilities don’t have to work across multiple sites.
It is, he says, something the states could do, despite private aged care homes being regulated and funded by the federal government.
In relation to single site workforce, the important thing here is that has been triggered, in non- outbreak times, ...is the need to make sure there are adequate staff resources for resident safety, that means for example, it is critical that we can have testing staff move between sites, vaccinated staff move between sites, clinical first responders exactly as we are now, the need to cover those that are ill and the need for search workforce, all of those things show the need for flexibility.
Having said that the advice in the greater Melbourne region it is approximately 4.7% of staff who have worked across different sites, so it is a situation, which is very much in the absolute minority of staff, but the safety of residents, including as I say vaccination testing, clinical first responder, coverage for those ill and the capacity for search workforce, is the reason why the authorities had previously not made a change, it is very much something that could be done under public-health orders at the state level.
And here is Hunt on mandatory vaccinations for aged care staff:
In relation to mandating for aged care workers, that had been previously looked at by the Chief Health Officer is of the states, along with the Commonwealth, the Prime Minister and myself have asked the medical expert panel to review that decision, that was not recommended at the time, we have asked the medical expert panel to review precisely that question.
We haven’t heard from Christian Porter as yet – just the ABC – but we will update you.
Updated
Christian Porter drops defamation action against ABC
The ABC has just sent out the following statement:
Christian Porter has decided to discontinue his defamation action against the ABC and Louise Milligan.
All parties have agreed to not pursue the matter any further. No damages will be paid.
The ABC stands by the importance of the article, which reported on matters of significant public interest, and the article remains online. It has been updated with this Editor’s Note:
‘On 26 February 2021, the ABC published an article by Louise Milligan.That article was about a letter to the Prime Minister containing allegations against a senior cabinet minister. Although he was not named, the article was about the Attorney-General Christian Porter.
The ABC did not intend to suggest that Mr Porter had committed the criminal offences alleged. The ABC did not contend that the serious accusations could be substantiated to the applicable legal standard – criminal or civil. However, both parties accept that some readers misinterpreted the article as an accusation of guilt against Mr Porter. That reading, which was not intended by the ABC, is regretted.’
The ABC stands by our investigative and public interest journalism, which is always pursued in the interests of the Australian community.
The ABC stands by Louise Milligan, one of Australia’s foremost and most awarded investigative journalists, and all our journalists in their independent and brave reporting on matters about which Australians have a right to be informed.
Updated
Greg Hunt says four million doses have now been administered under Australia’s Covid vaccine program - that was a target we were supposed to hit in March.
Updated
AAP has kindly put together a summary of the Victorian press conference:
- There are 11 new coronavirus cases, including six since midnight on Monday (the six new cases will appear in tomorrow’s figures);
- Including Monday’s six infections, the number of active cases is 60 (including hotel quarantine);
- There were 43,874 Covid tests done in the 24 hours to Monday morning, along with 16,752 vaccine doses;
- More than 4200 primary close contacts have been identified - 77 per cent of those have returned negative test results.
AGED CARE CASES
There are three new cases linked to the Arcare Maidstone aged care facility:
- One of those is the son of the Altona worker who tested positive on Sunday;
- The second is an unvaccinated colleague who also worked at the Blue Cross Western Gardens facility in Sunshine from Wednesday to Friday;
- The third is a resident, a woman in her 90s, who has been moved to hospital.
- Four aged care facilities are now in lockdown.
Updated
With vaccine hesitancy in Australia on the rise and misinformation swirling, how do you convince friends and family who are fearful or sceptical that they should get the jab?
We want to hear from our readers about successful conversations you’ve had with those who are hesitant to get a vaccine.
How did you manage to change their mind about the vaccine? What worked and what didn’t?
Share your experience in the comments on this piece here - not in the comments on the blog - and we will highlight some of the most useful contributions.
Updated
Four days into the (hopefully) week-long Melbourne lockdown, there is still a healthy, if not overwhelming, line outside the Royal Exhibition Building mass-vaccination hub in Melbourne.
About 30 people were waiting out the front, safely socially distanced, and all eager to get inside. (It’s unclear if this was out of excitement to be vaccinated or a wish to simply be out of the Melbourne cold.)
“My view is, well, you are either part of the problem or part of the solution,” said Alana, lining up with her partner, Randall, their two young kids in tow.
“My view is, well you are either part of the problem or part of the solution,” says Alana who has come with her partner to get the Pfizer vaccine today. (The kids are just here for the ride). @GuardianAus pic.twitter.com/AoSxiwDVDp
— Matilda Boseley (@MatildaBoseley) May 31, 2021
“There seem to be a lot of people who were eligible that weren’t taking up the offer. So when our age category [40-49]came up, we jumped on it.”
Amelia, who asked for her last name not to be included, said she was excited to finally get the vaccine. She has a preexisting medical condition but had been made to wait for Pfizer to become available.
“Obviously with us going back into lockdown again I think it’s prompted a lot of people to come out but, yeah, yeah I guess I feel lucky that I qualify,” she said.
“My husband isn’t eligible, a lot of my friends aren’t eligible. So, you know ... I think, take advantage of it if you can. I do feel bad for a lot of people that don’t quite meet the requirements at the moment.”
Updated
Chris Minns has officially, officially entered the contest for the NSW Labor leadership (much like relationships aren’t offical until they are debuted on social media, political ambitions aren’t official until there is a press conference)
Minns:
I want to pay tribute to Jodi McKay in the work she did in incredibly difficult circumstances and I will say from the outset I think she has a big role to play in the future of the Labor Party.
I want to be leader of the Labor Party, I believe it is time for change.
We are in the 10th year of the O’Farrell- Berejiklian - Baird government.
...I believe it is time for Labor to be the party of the future. I believe it is time for Labor to be focusing on ideas that solve problems and I think it is time for Labor to to start the long march to regain the trust of the people of this state. I did not get involved in politics and I don’t believe any of my colleagues got involved in politics just to put out negative press releases on a daily basis attacking the Berejiklian government.
Mark Butler has responded to the aged care multiple-sites “guidelines’’ from the federal government:
Well, I think it’s been known for some time it is very difficult to make a living wage working particularly in private residential aged care.
The shifts are usually short. It’s very hard, very rare to pull together a full-time job. The hourly wages are quite low.
So there is I guess a financial incentive for people to work across aged care facilities.
That’s why when the results of that became apparent, particularly during the Victorian wave, but also to a degree in New South Wales last year, it was clear the federal government had to step in and provide some support if aged care workers were going to be prevented from working two different jobs in the aged care sector.
It’s not clear to me the basis on which the government decided that was no longer necessary in November.
And I think the government will have to give an explanation as to why that was the case ...
The ban was reintroduced. That’s a good thing. In the interim we’ve seen an aged care worker who worked, as I understand it, at the Arcare facility in Maidstone, working in another facility, potentially exposing residents at the second facility.
The government needs to explain why they thought the risk had receded to such a degree that it was able to lift the ban that was in place last year.
We know again through bitter tragic experience that about 84% of exposures in the Victorian aged care system last year, which resulted in 655 deaths, were a product of contact through aged care workers or aged care staff.
So this is a very important issue.
Updated
This is, as Mel Davey has reported, after the federal government has already admitted that its “guidelines’’ CAN’T be enforced.
So in Victoria, workers in state-run aged care facilities cannot work across multiple sites, and pay and policy settings have been updated to reflect that.
But staff in private aged care facilities - for which the federal government has oversight - CAN work across multiple facilities.
Workers in many cases are forced to do this in order to earn a liveable wage. It is one of the reasons the aged care royal commission wants to see aged care workers paid more. Labor has committed to that - not through a levy, as suggested, but by ensuring more federal funds go to wages.
But despite the lessons of the pandemic there have been no changes for aged care in federally funded, private aged care facilities.
There are now three aged care workers who have tested positive to Covid in private, federally funded Victorian aged care centres, and one resident, across two facilities. One staff member had worked alongside the initial worker who tested positive at the Arcare Maidstone centre - and then went to a different facility for another shift.
Again, this is not the fault of the workers. It’s the system.
Every aged care worker in a federally funded site..
— Rafael Epstein (@Raf_Epstein) May 31, 2021
Being told today, belatedly, pls don't work across various homes.
But it's a request, it's not mandatory. pic.twitter.com/ec30f6Qk6G
Updated
The federal Covid update will be delivered at 3pm today.
Updated
Daniel Andrews won’t be returning to work tomorrow (June 1) but still hopes to be back at some point in June.
Updated
Here is Martin Foley when asked again why Victoria can’t stop private aged care workers from working at multiple facilities.
Private aged care is a federal government responsibility.
Foley:
I think you’re inviting me to do two things. One is to be critical of the commonwealth, which I’m not going to do. I’m going to work cooperatively with the commonwealth to address a real problem.
And you’re inviting me to, on the run, reframe the regulatory framework that’s applied for Covid responses right across the commonwealth in private residential aged care for some 14 months.
Clearly the Victorian government, and all the state governments and territory government’s powers when it comes to pandemic responses are broad and significant.
But they also try to be as consistent as possible and in line with the national direction set by national cabinet.
In this regard, without doubt, the chief health officer’s powers are very broad. But they also need to be appropriately reflected against the national consistent policies wherever that applies. That is in the case of private residential aged care.
Martin Foley walking a very careful line between attribution and blame at this press conference #auspol #VicLockdown
— Katharine Murphy (@murpharoo) May 31, 2021
Updated
Jacinda Ardern was asked about the Christchurch terrorist, and whether there are any discussions about him serving out the rest of his life sentence in Australia.
She said that “future decisions” on the issue need “to come from the guidance of the community”.
We haven’t undergone any formal consultation on future imprisonment and where he should see out the end of his days in prison. But certainly some of the informal feedback has been [that] he should stay in New Zealand.”
That was out of a desire for assurance that the sentence be served, Ardern said.
Scott Morrison said it was a “deeply sensitive” issue and Australia shared that view. Australia was “open to those dialogues” but “at this point that is not the plan”, he said.
Updated
The first question at the Scott Morrison and Jacinda Ardern press conference is to the Australian prime minister, asking about earlier comments that Australia is unwilling to sell its sovereignty. Does he think New Zealand has sold its sovereignty to China?
Morrison replies “no” - and says that although Australia and New Zealand are trading nations “neither of us will trade our sovereignty or trade away our values”. So we’ve avoided a diplomatic incident there.
In answer to a later question, Ardern said she doesn’t detect any difference between Australia and New Zealand on questions of human rights in China. Morrison then agrees. Ardern says New Zealand’s membership of the Five Eyes network is “not in question and not in doubt”. She rejects the suggestion New Zealand is “cosying up” to China.
Asked about the travel bubble, Ardern takes a cautious approach:
Both of us share enthusiasm, where it is safe to do so, to expand the trans-Tasman bubble. We want to maintain the freedoms we have, which means maintaining the very high bar we’ve set. Given vaccination is not yet widespread we would need to satisfy ourselves there was no risk Covid could enter. There are some Pacific countries where that would be an option - our Pacific neighbours.”
Morrison is taken to a specific example of a deportation from Australia to New Zealand - a highly controversial issue in the alliance. He reiterates that Australia’s laws allow it to cancel the visa of anyone convicted of a criminal offence.
Ardern does not repeat her most strident criticism of the policy but said she reiterates New Zealand’s views on citizenship and deportation. Morrison is “very clear on New Zealand’s view”, she said.
Updated
Christian Porter and ABC case back in court for unscheduled hearing
This is something to pay attention to:
Christian Porter and the ABC are back in court today at 2.15pm. The hearing wasn't scheduled, and has been requested by the parties after last Friday's mediation.
— Michael McGowan (@mmcgowan) May 31, 2021
We’ll leave the Victorian press conference there for a moment and check in with some of the other news that happened in that hour and a bit.
Updated
I asked the office of the federal aged care services minister Richard Colbeck whether the guidelines that aged care staff should, where possible, only work at one main facility had been relaxed or changed at all before the most recent outbreak.
Colbeck did not answer the question, but said single-site funding support for Covid-19 impacted areas of Victoria was triggered for providers across Greater Melbourne on Thursday, 27 May. He said:
“This will support residential aged care providers to implement single-site workforce arrangements.
The grant funding will be available for out-of-pocket costs incurred during an initial two-week period, from 27 May 2021 to 10 June 2021.
If the hotspot declaration is extended, these arrangements will also be extended.
Providers are asked to adjust their rosters and ensure staff are only working at one residential aged care facility during this time.
A reminder that employers should ensure their workers are not financially disadvantaged during this period and that they continue to receive the income they may have received from other residential aged care providers.
Where this results in additional out-of-pocket costs for the primary employer, reimbursement can be sought through the grant application process.”
Guardian Australia understands the federal government can’t actually restrict casual staff from supplementing their income by working across sites, despite their guidelines. They can only do so during outbreaks when this funding support is triggered.
Updated
Ahhh, the art of the subtle burn:
Q: Has the COVIDSafe app (the federal government app that was meant to be like ‘‘sunscreen’’) been used at all during the outbreak? Has it identified any areas?
Martin Foley:
No. Not to my knowledge and I’m sure in such a rare event it would have been brought to my attention.
Updated
Who has been vaccinated when it comes to Victoria’s frontline workers?
Jeroen Weimar
So hotel quarantine workers is 100% - there’s a requirement and it’s part of their conditions of service within the system.
Within the wider health service, we had critical healthcare workers who were part of the original rollout, going back to February. All of them have been delivered.
And recognising people come into roles and move out of roles, wider healthcare service I can give you numbers but over 85% of wider healthcare workers, hundreds of thousands of people across the state have been vaccinated, and [that] includes our public sector residential aged care workforce.
Just to highlight that, we started our public sector residential aged care vaccination program back in February. We completed the first round on April 19. We continue to update it as we go through our second-dose cycle.
Updated
Part of the reason for this lockdown - and the concern - is that this variant of the virus, B.1.617, is more virulent than previous strains.
It’s been one of the reasons there are so many primary and secondary contacts, and so many exposure sites.
Updated
How long can Victorian businesses go without a wage subsidy or some help?
James Merlino:
Well, this is a devastating time for businesses. And we absolutely acknowledge that.
That’s why we delivered a bigger and broader business support package than we delivered in February. And we’ll deliver it as quickly as we can. Businesses are able to provide an expression of interest in terms of it.
There will be applications open no later than Wednesday of this week. And businesses, the first payments will start by the end of this week. So we know how tough businesses are doing and that’s why we have provided a quarter of a billion dollars of support. And we feel that the federal government should also support Victorian businesses.
Updated
Does James Merlino believe the federal government is not providing financial support because it is does not want to encourage “heavy handed lockdowns’’?
Merlino:
That’s entirely speculative. You’d have to put those questions to the federal treasurer. The treasurer and myself outlined Victoria’s position very, very clearly yesterday. And I’ve got nothing to add to those comments.
If the lockdown was smaller, does Merlino believe there would have been support?
That’s a question you should put to the federal government. I don’t know their thinking in refusing to provide the support that we’re asking for, that businesses across the state are asking for. That’s a question you’d need to put to the federal government.
What does Victoria want from the federal government?
We put it to them that there needs to be support for Victorian businesses, wage subsidy is a responsibility of the federal government.
We’re in a circuit-breaker lockdown. Businesses are doing it tough. We don’t have JobKeeper.
So it was appropriate, we thought, we’re putting a quarter of a billion dollars, bigger and broader than the circuit-breaker lockdown’s business support back in February. We think it’s appropriate that the federal government provide support as well. In terms of why and in terms of their thinking, those are questions you would need to put to them.
Updated
James Merlino is asked why Victoria is going through this again - why is Victoria “the capital for outbreaks and lockdowns’’?
Merlino:
Well, I think that is an unfair question.
What we have seen right across the nation are breaches in hotel quarantine.
Let’s remember that this outbreak that we are dealing with right now originated from a hotel quarantine breach in South Australia. That’s a fact.
All the genomic testing points to the outbreak in hotel quarantine in South Australia.
Now, I’ve said we would not be in this position, we would be in a very different world, if we had a successful rollout of the commonwealth’s vaccination program.
It would be a very different world if we had alongside hotel quarantine alternative quarantine arrangements for our highest-risk cohorts that travel in from overseas.
But we don’t have that.
What we have had is a breach after 86 days, after 86 days without community transmission in Victoria, we had a breach in South Australia that has led to this outbreak that we are dealing with right now ...
I understand the question but every outbreak is different. Everyone who is positive with COVID-19, many do not transmit. Some transmit and are highly infectious. That is the nature of this global pandemic.
We’ve had an outbreak from South Australia, [it] travelled to Victoria, and now we are dealing with this outbreak. What people want to see are the actions we are taking to get in front of this outbreak as quickly as we can.
Updated
What has the lockdown achieved so far?
James Merlino:
I just want to be honest with people. Every step of the way we are talking to the broader Victorian community about where we are right now.
And where we are today is those additional cases that we’ve gone through, a high number of primary close contacts, a high number of exposure sites, very concerning number of very high-risk settings.
I want to be clear with people: the next few days are going to be so critically important and that includes the possibility that this outbreak will get worse before it gets better. That’s the situation that we’re in right now and I want to be upfront with people to let them know that’s the case.
Updated
Have the lessons from last year, in terms of aged care, been learned?
Martin Foley:
We’re learning more about this virus and how it acts every day and in different settings every day.
What we are also learning about is how people respond to that virus every day, in different settings, in different ways.
And we’re also learning that the best way in which we can respond to that in a particularly Australian context is to secure our borders through dedicated specific high-risk quarantine facilities being built separate to hotel quarantine.
And to avoid the kind of leakage that we’ve seen from the South Australian hotel quarantine breach that is at the heart of this outbreak.
And on the other hand we’ve also seen ... how we respond through matching high-risk settings, getting vaccinated, getting tested.
It’s up to all of us - doesn’t matter public, private, what the setting is - we all have a shared sense of responsibility to do the right thing here and overcome this breach and overcome this particular high-risk setting in our private residential aged care sector.
Updated
Can Victoria regulate the private aged care sector?
Martin Foley:
We just had a royal commission into our aged care sector. It is beyond dispute this sector is regulated, funded and overwhelmingly guided by the commonwealth.
In the course of a global pandemic, through the cooperative Victorian Aged Care Response Centre framework, where we all get together with a shared purpose of beating this virus, we share our issues in a cooperative approach in that regard.
So I don’t think it’s right to say that this is a sector that is unregulated. It’s where the regulatory power lies.
Updated
James Merlino says it is “too early to speculate” whether or not the lockdown will be lifted at the end of the seven days.
So if you are planning to get married this weekend, or have any other plans (or are a parent of a school-aged child), I am sorry, we can’t give you any concrete answer as to what will happen at the end of the week.
Updated
Martin Foley is asked whether Covid is back in Victoria’s aged care system and says:
Covid-19 cases are back in our residential private aged care system and that is not a good thing, it is a very serious thing that Professor Sutton has indicated, these are a high-risk setting.
I don’t have to remind people in Victoria and Australia, the disproportionate impact Covid-19 has on fatalities and private potential, in residential aged care settings.
That is why we have prioritised these people in the 1A and IB groups, these high-risk settings. Governments have been very keen on [making] sure we work hand in glove with the commonwealth to deliver support for our sectors, and their sectors, and increasingly, [the] responsibility of getting it done regardless of what sector you are in.
Is he frustrated with the federal government, given what happened last year in Victoria’s aged care homes?
Foley:
You are inviting me to be critical of the commonwealth government in the space. I’m the minister for health, I know how the virus reacts and it does [not] make a distinction between commonwealth and state facilities. My job is to keep Victorians safe, especially in those high-risk settings. There are multiple challenges to that every day, as we see. Public health team responses have been for the past week extraordinary, for the past year.
We are keeping up with this, I want to thank everyone involved, I will resist the temptation to be critical of the commonwealth, I will work cooperatively with them every chance I get to get ahead of us.
Updated
Martin Foley on that topic:
Let’s be clear, this is not a particularly unique Victorian set of circumstances, this is a national system that applies across all of the commonwealth.
People may recall in the early outbreak back in NSW and Sydney, some of the issues that our NSW friends ran into – common private residential aged care, some of those settings.
The challenges they have in responding to that framework. The Victorian public residential aged care system attached to our healthcare network, that is what the tricky government regulates under arrangements.
...We all bring our separate roles and responsibilities to this national pandemic, this global pandemic.
When it comes to residential aged care, for the last time, this pandemic has been raging across the country. Public residential aged care is the responsibility of the states.
Private residential aged care is the responsibility of the commonwealth.
It doesn’t really matter, to the families and communities and the workforce, which is why we have established the Victorian Aged Care Response Centre model so as to co-ordinate that effort.
As part that coordination of effort we have continually shared issues and priorities with our friends from the commonwealth and I thank them for their partnership. As part of that partnership, we are now seeing the commonwealth bring forward vaccination programs in some of these private residential aged care centres for staff and workforce. We welcome that.
Updated
Why did the Victorian government not stop the federal government from allowing aged care workers to move to different centres in private facilities?
James Merlino:
The answer is, public aged care is the responsibility of state government.
Private aged care is the responsibility of the federal government.
Can the state step in to stop it?
I might ask the minister for health to add to the comments I have made, it’s a very simple proposition. Public sector aged care, state responsibility – we have clear policies in place that has made sure workers don’t work across sites. Private sector aged care is a federal government responsibility. These are absolutely relevant questions everyone is asking – they should be put to the federal government.
Updated
Acting premier James Merlino is asked about workers in private aged care centres (for which the federal government has oversight) and why they are still able to work across multiple sites, when in the state facilities that is not happening.
Merlino:
In terms of aged care, the minister for health might supplement my answer. In terms of our workforce, through our policy settings and the financial support for the public sector, we have been able to have 100% of aged care workers in metropolitan Melbourne who are not working across multiple sites.
And that’s for a reason.
These are high-risk venues. In terms of the settings the federal government do not have, in fact up until I think as recently as last Friday, it was the ability for workers and federal aged care, private sector aged care, to work across sites. That’s a question [for the federal government].
Updated
Will the city be separated from regional Victoria again?
Brett Sutton:
It will be determined as we go through a review of the situation day-by-day. It is not out of the question.
Updated
Victorian authorities still have a missing link with their earlier cases, which they continue to look for.
Updated
More on where private aged care staff can work:
I have just discovered that the federal government can’t actually restrict casual staff from supplementing their income by working across aged care sites, despite their guidelines. They can only do so during outbreaks when funding support is triggered, such as the funding below. pic.twitter.com/JmkKVsxPrc
— Melissa Davey (@MelissaLDavey) May 31, 2021
Updated
Victoria’s COVID-19 testing commander Jeroen Weimar has outlined the new exposure sites authorities are particularly concerned about, because they’re tier-one stores and markets.
These include:
- JMDGrocers & Sweets Indian supermarket in Epping
- Healthy India grocery in Reservoir
- Inday Filipino Asian Store in Footscray market
- Thai Huy Butcher in Footscray market
You can find the times of concern and the full list of exposure sites here.
Weimar said:
These and of course a number of the other tier-one exposure sites we have out on our website are really important to us.
“We really want to establish who’s been to these locations, capture as many people as possible and make sure we get them tested and isolated as swiftly as we can.”
Updated
Jeroen Weimer says it is not just the number of cases, but the number of exposure sites - which are still increasing - which is a concern.
These exposure sites are ... a major concern for us. The slightly discouraging picture over the last 24 hours in the new cases we have seen overnight is a much shorter period and one associated with the aged care worker.
Because she got tested immediately [after her] symptoms onset on Friday, her primary close contacts were also very short into their infectious period. So it reduced the number of exposure sites and that gives us obviously a much better chance of getting a hold of this and putting it down.
Updated
The more than 4000 people who have been identified as a close or secondary contact of a confirmed case and who are meant to be isolating are being monitored, Brett Sutton says. Six hundred doorknocks are planned for today, and the Australian Defence Force is helping with that.
Updated
What factors are being considered, in terms of whether or not the lockdown needs to be extended?
Brett Sutton:
The real measure is not to have more cases but, if cases occur, to make sure that they are quarantining.
We have seen increasingly the new cases we identify are already quarantining and that is a good sign. There will be people who – for essential work purposes, for caring compassionate reasons – are still moving about and so some new exposure sites will occur by virtue of that.
We need to reflect on how many people are exposed in those settings and the sensitivity of those settings in terms of vulnerable people.
Updated
Should the federal government have stopped workers in the private aged care sector from working across multiple facilities? (As Mel has pointed out, the guidelines say don’t do it, but they are not enforced. Aged care workers often need to work across multiple sites in order to make a living - another symptom of a casualised workforce, and paying essential workers such low rates.)
Brett Sutton:
It is a question for the commonwealth, it is a commonwealth workforce. As has been stated, the minister has said that in the public sector, the Victorian public sector, aged care, there has been both financial support and a policy setting that has effectively prohibited work across multiple aged care sites. That is entirely appropriate. It is massively risky to move across different settings ...
It is a risk wherever it occurs, it doesn’t matter if it is public or private, but the question as to how it is effectively enforced, supported financially or otherwise in terms of policy, is a question for the commonwealth.
Updated
Does Brett Sutton believe the state should take over the vaccination rollout for private aged care homes?
Sutton:
We will work with the commonwealth with whatever assistance they may desire of the states.
The minister has made that clear. We are ready and willing to assist with whatever request might come through.
The reality is we have been open to vaccinate private aged care workforce for the last three weeks.
That continues to be available and if I could say anything to the aged care workforce, practically speaking, the greatest protection you can give to those under your charge, under your care, and I know you care for them, is to get vaccinated, to be fully vaccinated.
That would be the greatest protection you could provide to those you are caring for, in whatever setting.
And I know that not all of you have been vaccinated to date and there are multiple reasons for that but if it is a matter of tossing up whether or not the vaccine provides protection for you, and by virtue of that to those you care for, please come forward to get tested now.
Updated
Brett Sutton speaks a little more on the prospect that the lockdown could be extended:
We have to prepare for anything. We don’t know what will unfold over coming days. We have said that all the way through. We interrogate the data very deeply on a day-by-day basis. We could get very reassuring news over the rest of today but we have had staff come to us in the last 48 hours. It is very concerning and we need to bear that in mind.
Updated
Victoria’s chief health officer, professor Brett Sutton, is also implying the seven-day “circuit breaker’’ lock down could be extended.
Nothing is confirmed - but the comments so far are not promising.
It’s a day-by-day prospect but, as the acting premier said, they are concerning numbers and concerning settings.
We’ve gone from a single case at the beginning of the month to 4200 primary close contacts.
It has been a rapidly moving virus and the transmission that has occurred in those high-risk settings has been very substantial.
So we have to take it as a day-by-day prospect. With more numbers today coming through and those really concerning settings, especially in aged care, we are neck-and-neck with this virus and it is an absolute beast.
Updated
Jeroen Weimer reminds people to make sure they are well before going out to get vaccinated.
If you are feeling unwell, get tested and isolate until you receive your results.
The person in charge of Victoria’s testing regime, Jeroen Weimar, is also at this press conference:
Over the last seven days of this outbreak we have seen 275,000 Victorians come forward for testing. Over that same period we have delivered 95,600 vaccinations through our state clinics, making a total of 476,000 vaccinations delivered since the start of the vaccination program through our state clinics, part of the 1.1 million doses allocated to Victorians in the last few months.
My thanks go to those working in the vaccination stations over a very busy seven-day cycle, the GPs across the state [are] a critical part of the vaccination effort.
As the acting premier has said, over the last seven days we have identified 4200 primary close contacts. We continue to see an encouraging set of negative results come back, 77% of those identified have already returned a negative test result. With the huge numbers of tests going through the system, we see that number go up. We have now 279 exposure sites.
Updated
Martin Foley:
The fact this outbreak has crept into a number of private residential aged care facilities is obviously a very great concern to the Victorian government. It’s a very great concern to all Victorians and the commonwealth government.
In Victoria, we are very grateful for the support that has been put in place, be that from the Victorian aged care response sector, a joint partnership between the state and the commonwealth; we are grateful for the western public health unit, that has taken the lead in a number of response measures; and we are grateful to the commonwealth and others working in partnership with us to respond to the outbreaks in private residential aged care.
Since the start of the pandemic, in 2020, we have put in place additional rigourous measures, to protect our residential aged care facilities – our staff and, most importantly, the residents.
While of course the commonwealth is responsible for the regulation of private residential aged care in Victoria, Victoria has sought to assist that sector wherever we possibly can.
Including through the extensive on-ground support provided by our healthcare workers, who have now completed more than 5000 shifts, of the state system assisting those private residential aged care services, which are indeed on the ground as we speak.
Updated
Health minister Martin Foley steps up:
Unfortunately, three of today’s cases relate to emerging outbreaks in our private residential aged care sector.
One is the son of the initial case – you recall the first case in Maidstone Arcare – he doesn’t work at the facility but is linked.
One is a staff member at that same Arcare Maidstone who worked alongside that initial case.
She was not vaccinated. She also worked at another aged care facility, the Blue Cross ACG Sunshine facility, on 26 and 27 and 28 of May.
That has therefore triggered a strong public health response at the Blue Cross facility, similar to what was activated to contain measures at the Maidstone Arcare facility.
And the third, additional case linked to the Arcare outbreak is unfortunately a resident. A woman in her 90s, within the Arcare Maidstone workplace where the initial case worked.
She is asymptomatic and has been transferred to a separate hospital that we have established precisely for this risk. Our thoughts are clearly with the resident, with the workforce and communities and families they are all a part of ... indeed, our thoughts are with everyone who is impacted by this virus.
Updated
This does not sound promising, in terms of the lockdown ending as scheduled.
James Merlino:
In the past 24 hours we identified many more points of concern.
In addition to the very worrying cases in private aged car, we are very concerned about the number of other high-risk exposure sites.
We are seeing a small number of cases infecting a large number of contacts.
There is no doubt, the situation is incredibly serious. The next few days remain critical.
I want to be very clear with everyone, this outbreak may well get worse before it gets better.
I’m asking every single Victorian, if you have any symptoms whatsoever, please go and get tested. Check the exposure sites regularly and please keep following the rules to keep you, your family or community and everyone in Victoria safe. This is not over and we need to keep going.
Updated
Victorian Covid press conference
I’m just leaving Scott Morrison’s opening remarks from New Zealand, as acting Victorian premier James Merlino has stepped up to update us on the Victorian situation.
Merlino:
There are currently 54 active cases of coronavirus in Victoria. I can also advise there are a further six locally acquired cases that came through after the late-night cut-off, and a public health teams are urgently investigating and interviewing these cases.
Of the cases formally reported today, two relate to the city of Whittlesea outbreak, one is a contact of a previous case linked to the Star car wash and one source of acquisition is under investigation.
We are managing 4200 primary close contacts across all of our exposure sites.
Updated
This is indeed very sad news.
Very sad news. Garma 2021 is cancelled on the advice of the NT's Chief Health Officer. It's remoteness would be a huge challenge if COVID broke out. Millions to the local Nhulunbuy community will also be lost.
— Sarah Collard (@Sarah_Collard_) May 31, 2021
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Scott Morrison's press conference
Prime ministers Scott Morrison and Jacinda Ardern are holding their press conference following the bilateral talks in New Zealand.
We will bring you some of this but will have to return to it later as we’re prioritising the Victorian press conferenceg, which is due to start very soon.
Ardern:
We have shared our learnings, information and work collaboratively as we navigate COVID-19. The COVID challenge that we all face is writ large at the moment and I did want to acknowledge the people of Victoria and just say that everyone in New Zealand is thinking of you at this time. We have had our fair share of challenges and we understand what it is like when you reach another hurdle, but we have absolute faith it is a hurdle you will come out on the other side of and we look forward to welcoming you back on our shores again soon.
Updated
Here was Michael McCormack on why the federal government doesn’t need to step in and help Victorian workers through this lockdown:
We have already provided $40bn, 40,000 million dollars for Victoria to help their economy, to support their businesses. We provided that, we have done it to make sure that we Victorian businesses going, to keep their employees engaged with those businesses. A week in the scheme of things is not a long time in the whole scheme of things, in an 18-month [period].
Funny - I don’t think landlords and utility companies feel quite the same way about “a week not being a long time in the whole scheme of things’’.
Anyone who has lived week-to-week - or day-to-day - with their finances knows EXACTLY how long a deal a week is, in the scheme of things.
Updated
I don’t know what it would be like to be going through a fourth lockdown, particularly after what Victorians went through last year.
But to see the virus back in aged care homes, after everything we saw happen, all the families left heartbroken - it is just devastating.
We are all hoping the virus does not spread, and that those who have been diagnosed recover, and swiftly. I am so, so sorry people are going through this again.
Updated
So that is three aged care workers who have been diagnosed with Covid in Victoria, and one resident (in this latest outbreak).
Vulnerable Australians were meant to be vaccinated by Easter.
Updated
Second Victorian aged care home confirms positive case
This was reported on Melbourne radio this morning and has been confirmed.
This just in from the BlueCross aged care facility; #CovidVic - a staff member tested positive on 30 May. @AmyRemeikis pic.twitter.com/yD6Ovyg0Fs
— Melissa Davey (@MelissaLDavey) May 31, 2021
Updated
Victoria will hold its press conference at 12.15pm.
So we’ll dip out of the prime minister’s to bring you that.
Updated
With Covid cases having now emerged in Victoria’s aged care system, we’ve had readers questioning who some of those staff appear to have been working across multiple facilities.
Staff in casual or insecure work who needed to work across multiple facilities to make ends meet were a key factor in Victoria’s second wave last year, which resulted in almost 700 people dying in aged care.
As a result, the federal government changed its guidelines for the aged care homes it manages (the majority of aged care homes are federally run).
According to the federal government guidelines:
Workers who have more than one aged care employer will choose a primary employer – which must be the employer they work most hours per week with, if they are to access Australian government assistance – and that facility will employ them for at least their total normal hours by providing additional hours equal to or greater than the hours they were working elsewhere.’’
But here’s the catch; the guidelines are not mandatory.
I’ve contacted the office of the federal aged care minister Richard Colbeck to ask if this policy has changed recently, and whether staff ideally are still required to work at just one facility.
Both BlueCross and Arcare in Victoria, where staff have been infected in the current outbreak, are federally funded homes. We are seeking to confirm the BlueCross case, and Arcare issued a statement earlier confirming its cases.
An Arcare statement issued on Sunday said there was “limited” staff movement between facilities.
My colleague Nino Bucci is trying to confirm with the facility exactly what limited movement means.
Meanwhile the Victorian government has a policy for its homes that: “Where practicable, care facility workers should be limited to working at one facility.”
So again, not mandatory.
Updated
We’ll hear from prime minister Scott Morrison at midday (AEST).
He’s speaking in New Zealand following his meetings with his counterpart Jacinda Ardern.
Updated
Michael Daley is back in contention for leadership of the NSW Labor party.
You may remember he was forced to apologise after this video surfaced just ahead of the NSW election (which Labor lost) in 2019.
Understandably, many Asian-Australian members of the Labor party have a bit to say about the situation and have released this statement:
I watched Michael Daley’s press conference on Sunday. It is apparent to me that Michael has not learned or understands how hurtful the comments he made back in 2019 were to Asian Australian communities. pic.twitter.com/yPz9IoWSzL
— Kun Huang (@kunhuang1990) May 30, 2021
So what we know so far:
- There are now two workers at the Arcare Maidstone aged care home who have tested positive for Covid
- One resident at the centre has also tested positive, and has been taken to hospital as a precaution.
- There is a possible third aged care worker who has tested positive for Covid at another aged care home – Blue Cross Western Gardens. Callers to Melbourne radio stations this morning were talking about that, but we are still waiting for confirmation from Victoria Health.
Updated
I contacted Victoria’s Department of Health to find out whether the staff member who tested positive for Covid who works at Blue Cross Western Gardens at Sunshine is the same staff member who tested positive at Arcare Maidstone, or whether they are two different separate cases.
Staff are still working across different facilities, so it could be that one case is being counted as a positive staff member at both facilities.
A spokeswoman from the Department of Health didn’t answer the question, telling me:
Please watch out for the press conference later this morning.
She did not say what time that would be.
Updated
Melbourne aged care home confirms additional cases
This follows Bill Shorten’s interview this morning, where he said he had been informed there were additional cases at the Arcare Maidstone aged care home – the operators have confirmed a second staff member and a resident have tested positive for Covid.
Arcare Statement: pic.twitter.com/w9yhbBg4gA
— Sharnelle Vella (@SharnelleVella) May 31, 2021
Updated
Scott Morrison’s office have released the remarks (to the media) he made at the meeting he had with Jacinda Ardern in New Zealand:
People often ask us, is this a partnership, it’s far more than a partnership. It is a family relationship between Australia and New Zealand. We have some very serious times that we’re dealing with, not just from the health point of view but obviously from a regional security point of view and Australia and New Zealand take a very prominent role in the Pacific, and I thank you for the relationship we’ve had working on particularly those issues in the Pacific.
It is true that Australia and New Zealand has done very well in the course of Covid. But as you can see in Victoria now, those challenges persist. And equally in Fiji, they are dealing with the challenges, and Papua New Guinea, they are dealing with challenges. We’re supporting all of our Pacific family through our vaccine dose delivery into those regions and supporting them in their vaccinations.
But the broader issue of the Indo-Pacific and a free and open Indo-Pacific is something Australia and New Zealand feels very strongly about. And working with our like-minded partners all around the world, the United States and the United Kingdom, and as we’re discussing across Europe, Japan and India, all of us have a big stake in ensuring a world that favours freedom and a free and open Indo-Pacific. And so we greatly appreciate the partnership we have to achieve those outcomes.
So with those issues all on the table today, we should, we should move on and get on with it. I really appreciate the direct personal relationship and dialogue we’ve had and, and that will only continue because we have common challenges, there are common threats, and that has always I think eclipsed everything when it comes to the strength of the working family relationship.
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NSW Health has also updated its vaccination numbers
The total number of vaccines administered in NSW is now 1,287,975 with 418,996 doses administered by NSW Health to 8pm last night and 868,979 administered by the GP network and other providers, to 11:59pm on Friday 28 May 2021.
— NSW Health (@NSWHealth) May 31, 2021
NSW records no local Covid cases
NSW has recorded no locally acquired cases in the last 24 hours.
Two people in hotel quarantine have tested positive for the virus.
Updated
Last week I wrote about how overcrowding in Victoria’s healthcare system is a “bigger public health emergency than Covid”, according to a leading emergency physician who says the state’s doctors and nurses were exhausted even before the latest outbreak.
The Australasian College for Emergency Medicine Victoria faculty chair, Dr Mya Cubitt, said on Friday that doctors and nurses in public hospitals had been dreading such a situation because they were still recovering from Victoria’s second wave in 2020. She added that the overcrowding issue was occuring Australia-wide.
Took my mum to RMH ED on Monday (before restrictions increase). They saw her quite quickly for all scans & tests she needed, but it was a 12 hour wait for a bed! She needs surgery on a broken arm & was asked the next day to wait at home until op date due to lack of beds.
— beek (@beckaroo81) May 27, 2021
Since the article was published I’ve had emergency healthcare workers contact me sharing their stories, including an emergency department registrar in an inner-city Melbourne hospital. She told me:
I would definitely agree that staff are burnt out; our waiting rooms are almost always full now and our patient populations are, generally speaking, older and multi-morbid. The incidence and acuity of people presenting with mental ill health in terms of substance and alcohol misuse, dementia and depression, self-harm and suicidality is certainly higher, which is especially difficult to manage and discharge safely in acuity in the ED, as well as often being emotionally charged and challenging for staff to deal with.
I was in hospital Fri-Mon last w/end (ED, short-stay, ward). Nurses said that they were short-staffed because of Covid testing & mass Vax hub redeployment, all taking on extra patients/shift. And lots of nurses pregnant/on mat leave since 2020, 10 pregnancies for that ward alone!
— Emma Barnard (@barnard_em) May 27, 2021
The gaping chasm of ill health between either end of socioeconomic spectrum is more evident than ever too; homelessness and the health risk conferred by housing instability is especially challenging this winter following a financially difficult year for so many. A lot of analogies continue to be drawn about how this pandemic is a marathon rather than a sprint, but at least we know a marathon definitely ends after 42km and I think not knowing definitively when normality may resume in our personal and professional lives compounded by widespread discourse and reluctance around vaccinations (like anti-vaxx posters stuck on lamp posts outside the hospital!) exacerbates the challenge.”
The registrar said she worked in a London emergency department last year until December, before returning to her family in Melbourne. She has an academic interest in social determinants of health.
She told me the sentiment among her Melbourne peers “is that we are all working flat out but especially with young mental health patients the system is so strained and there’s a bubbling consensus that we don’t often feel as though we are really ‘fixing’ someone anymore”.
The pandemic is tiring our workforce. I think people should know.
— Andy Lim (@ALim0211) May 28, 2021
There is a Melbourne-based study that measures the toll of pandemic preparation on the ability of emergency doctors to provide direct patient care. @MonashHealth @Monash_FMNHS @SCSMonashhttps://t.co/iN26Quto99
I think in the UK/Europe the legacy of the pandemic will be the deaths and hospitalisations and morbidity from the virus itself which is predominantly an older demographic, whereas here the knock-on effects from lockdown, financial hardship, worsening family violence and social isolation as drivers of significant mental ill-health amongst young people will likely be an issue for a long time to come.
I’m not sure what the answer or an alternative would have been though and Australia’s response to avoid a situation like Europe’s at all cost is wholly appropriate – many people, including those now presenting to ED disgruntled with vaccine side effects and sharing their negative experiences, don’t often realise how lucky they are as had they contracted the virus itself they would have likely died.”
Updated
We are still waiting to hear when the Victorian press conference will be held.
There are reports of positive Covid cases in two different aged care homes – but we are still waiting on official confirmation.
Updated
Given we are still deporting people who were born in New Zealand but came to Australia as babies/small children and lived their entire lives here, if they are convicted of a crime, this is probably not something Scott Morrison will be embracing:
It’s way beyond time for Australia to #AcceptNZ offer to resettle refugees. @ScottMorrisonMP has the perfect opportunity to do this during his visit to New Zealand. @amnestyOz #GameOver #auspol #politas
— Andrew Wilkie MP (@WilkieMP) May 31, 2021
Updated
Trying to get yourself “cancelled” (something that doesn’t exist) by claiming you have been “cancelled” (refer to previous parentheses) in a little-seen social media post to try and further your political career is sadly not a new tactic.
Pauline Hanson is still in the Senate.
Never heard of this guy before (the post in question has 13 reacts and 3 comments), but it's clear he sees the path to getting attention in the right-wing media echo chamber as he seems to be preemptively suggesting he's been cancelled. https://t.co/o5RwRDGTDb
— Josh Taylor (@joshgnosis) May 31, 2021
Updated
We are still waiting on the press conference when this will all be confirmed.
Just confirmed by @3AWNeilMitchell - there's another positive case in an aged care setting. Staff member. At Blue Cross Western Gardens - Sunshine. Staffer tested NEGATIVE on last day of work; but returned a positive result last night.
— Heidi Murphy (@heidimur) May 30, 2021
More children getting the flu jab in Australia
Uptake of the seasonal flu vaccine in children has risen as a result of increased funding and awareness, according to a paper published today in the Medical Journal of Australia.
In 2020, the proportion of flu-vaccinated children aged between six to 59 months rose to 43.9%, representing “a significant improvement from past low vaccination rates”.
The annual influenza vaccine is recommended for all Australians aged six months and older, with free vaccines for high-risk groups provided by the national immunisation program.
The highest annual hospitalisation rates for the seasonal flu are in infants aged less than six months, followed by children aged between six and 23 months.
Until recently, funding for the flu vaccine in children was limited, the report’s authors said. In 2020, the vaccine was added to the national immunisation program for all children aged six to 59 months.
The number of influenza vaccine doses available for all Australians has also increased, from 8.3m doses distributed in 2017 to 18m doses in 2020.
“Australia needs strategies to improve and sustain high coverage,” the authors wrote.
“These could include personalised vaccination reminders and provision of greater access to influenza vaccination services.”
Updated
Also happening today: Townsville will find out if it will host the State of Origin opener if the lockdown forces the game to be moved from Melbourne.
Updated
This is an actual federal government announcement for aged care workers. Take a look at the advice for under-50s (who are recommended to have the Pfizer vaccine).
You can get a dose, where doses are available. And then hope you can get a second dose, if there are doses left over. If not, kindly work it out.
This is the program the federal government is running.
Pfizer vaccines for aged care workers ... Hope for a spare dose or make your own arrangements. pic.twitter.com/sWjqXqYxPG
— Sally Sara (@sallyjsara) May 30, 2021
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In case anyone was wondering, Scott Morrison is still in New Zealand.
Australia’s IPL cricket players have completed their quarantine in Sydney and have been released.
It has only been 28 days since Michael Slater tweeted this.
There are still Australians trying to get home from India (and around the world).
If our Government cared for the safety of Aussies they would allow us to get home. It's a disgrace!! Blood on your hands PM. How dare you treat us like this. How about you sort out quarantine system. I had government permission to work on the IPL but I now have government neglect
— Michael Slater (@mj_slats) May 3, 2021
Updated
We will hear a breakdown of the cases – and whether they are all linked – very soon.
These numbers are incredible though – 16,752 vaccines administered and 43,874 tests.
Thank you Victoria. You have shouldered such a huge, isolating burden during the past 18 months – and you keep showing up. I can’t pretend to know what it has been like, but I thank you.
Updated
Victoria reports five new local Covid cases
The numbers have just come in
Reported yesterday: 5 new local cases.
— VicGovDH (@VicGovDH) May 30, 2021
- 16,752 vaccine doses were administered
- 43,874 test results were received
Got symptoms? Get tested.
More later: https://t.co/lIUrl0ZEco
#COVID19Vic #COVID19VicData pic.twitter.com/8J2xuCnyB4
Updated
We are at the refreshing of the Victorian Health site stage of the morning while we wait for today’s numbers.
So far we have not received confirmation on Bill Shorten’s information that one, possibly two, other people at the Arcare Maidstone aged care home have tested positive for Covid. Everyone is waiting for today’s announcement.
Updated
Jim Chalmers, who in the last couple of weeks has been labelled a “shadow of a shadow minister” by Josh Frydenberg, who likes to repeat things he finds very clever – but should probably be tested outside the mirror before making their public debut – is doing all he can not to scream “vindication” over the hard stop on jobkeeper in these comments (but not quite getting there).
Victorians wouldn’t be in this position if the prime minister had got the vaccination rollout and the quarantine build right from the beginning.
I think it’s entirely reasonable that the Victorian people are frustrated, and anxious, and possibly angry. I say to the prime minister that all they expected of Scott Morrison was some competence when it comes to the vaccine rollout and the quarantine bill, and some compassion when it comes to economic support.
They’re getting neither competence, nor compassion, from this prime minister.
The Victorian business community is being strangled by the prime minister’s failures on vaccinations and quarantine. It didn’t take long for this prime minister and this treasurer to go from “we’re all in this together” to now all of a sudden Victorians are all on their own.
This is a treasurer who likes to parade his Victorian credentials when it suits him, when there’s a photo op in it for him, but when Victorians really need this treasurer he’s gone missing once again. Scott Morrison and Josh Frydenberg are leaving Victorians high and dry in their hour of need. What we want to see is the state government and the federal government working together to provide the necessary support to ensure the Victorians can get through a really difficult period.
Updated
Jim Chalmers held a doorstop interview this morning to discuss the need for federal financial assistance for workers during Victoria’s lockdown:
We have seen the state government come to the table with a support package the federal government should, too. Ideally, there would be some kind of income support, whether it is jobkeeper or perhaps they have got a better way of doing it. We have said all along that economic support should be tailored to the economic conditions.
We are worried that this government is very quick to pull economic support, but very slow to roll out the vaccines and take responsibility for quarantine.
Updated
The other issue bubbling alongside Victoria’s fourth lockdown – sparked by a hotel quarantine breach in Adelaide – is who will support workers who have just lost a week’s worth of pay.
Dan Tehan said people could go to Centrelink and apply for a payment – but that is only for people who have been ordered to isolate, or quarantine – not for people in lockdown, who can still leave the house for one of the five essential reasons. (Always better to check these things before saying them on national television.)
Josh Frydenberg hasn’t said there will be no assistance – just none right now. This was his response on Facebook yesterday, following criticism from the Victorian government about the Morrison government going MIA:
Since the end of jobkeeper Victoria is the third state to introduce a short lockdown. Greater Brisbane was subject to stay-at-home orders from 29 March to 1 April, the Perth metropolitan and Peel region was under stay-at-home orders from 24 to 27 April and Victoria is currently under stay-at-home orders from 28 May to 3 June.
In both the Queensland and Western Australian lockdowns further federal support was not required. In the case of Victoria, the Morrison government has provided and continues to provide an unprecedented level of direct economic support. Over $45bn has already flowed to Victorian families and businesses during Covid, with more direct federal economic support per capita going to Victoria than to any other state.
The amount of federal government direct economic support delivered to Victoria is around three times what has been delivered by the state government. The federal government continues to provide support to Victorian families and businesses through this pandemic.
The pandemic leave disaster payment of $1,500 is available as is the national health emergency crisis payment. For businesses that experience losses, the loss carry-back measure is available to boost cash flow at the end of the financial year.
The economic impact of the Victorian outbreak is not insignificant but the budget just over two weeks ago did anticipate further outbreaks would occur. Our budget measures were calibrated accordingly, with the budget providing an additional $41bn of Covid-related economic support. Should extended lockdowns be avoided and outbreaks contained the national economy can continue its strong recovery.
The Morrison government will continue to work with the Victorian government and closely monitor the situation.
I’m not sure what good it is telling people they received a higher share of financial help previously is, when they need help now. And it is possible other Australian jurisdictions will be in the same spot. The last sentence is the interesting one there – “closely monitor the situation” is usually code for, “if this gets worse, we’ll have to do something”. Which is cold comfort for people who have seen all their shifts disappear, with no warning, just as they were starting to get back on their feet.
Updated
There are now 268 exposure sites on the Victorian Health website
Former Labor MP Emma Husar, who was forced to resign from the federal parliament after “slut-shaming” allegations were reported against her (an investigation into the allegations later found no basis for the salacious claims against her and Husar subsequently won a defamation action against Buzzfeed) wants an apology from Anthony Albanese (as leader) and damages from the Labor party.
Who would have thought women needed protection from their own party?
— Emma Husar (@emma_husar) May 30, 2021
Sexual harassment isn’t new, women in Canberra deserve better, the ALP needs to take responsibility for their conduct in this, own their failings & BE sorry #auspol https://t.co/hFbDgkQS9e
Bill Shorten was leader at the time, and is asked whether Husar deserves an apology from the Labor party:
I do think that Emma – she was on the receiving end of some poor treatment, too.
So I have spoken to her in the past. I regret the way she was treated. I don’t say that covers all of the matters, but, yes, I think there were some people in New South Wales Labor who didn’t treat her well. Emma and I have had our own conversations on this matter. I do, in part, feel for her. I don’t think she was all in the wrong here.
So is that a yes or no?
Listen, Anthony wasn’t the leader then. I am not going the get into that. Certainly for my own view, I think she received some pretty unfair treatment and I am happy to say that.
Updated
Somehow, the government has managed to get stuck on the word “race” – as in being in competition with something, in this case, a highly contagious virus – and whether Australia is in one when it comes to a vaccine program.
Scott Morrison has said on multiple occasions in regards to a vaccine rollout that we are “not in a race” or “this isn’t a race”.
The lack of urgency from the government is one reason people are citing for delaying receiving their vaccine if they are eligible. With Victoria in lockdown, the whole country has had a reminder of why we are actually in a fairly urgent situation, because Covid can shut down whole communities and economies at any moment.
Shorten was asked by the ABC whether or not Australia was “in a race” when it came to the vaccine this morning:
Well, it is now. I think there has been a degree of complacency, not just by the government, but perhaps amongst Australians – if there is no outbreak of Covid then the urge to get the vaccine doesn’t seem as great.
We have seen people in Melbourne who are switched on to these matters, the vaccination rates have increased and the queues have got longer because now there is an outbreak.
I would suggest to my fellow Australians, once there is an outbreak, queuing up to get the vaccination seems to be too slow, to me.
Perhaps we need to get up from our kitchen tables and lounge chairs and I would say to people in states and towns which haven’t had to go through the lockdown that my hometown of Melbourne is going through, don’t wait until the lockdown to get vaccinated. Simple common sense says if there is Covid anywhere it could affect any of us at any time.
Updated
Bill Shorten says 'possibly two' Melbourne nursing home residents have contracted Covid
Bill Shorten is on ABC News Breakfast saying he understands one resident or “possibly two” at the Arcare Maidstone aged care home have tested positive for Covid – as well as an aged care worker.
This is not confirmed by Victorian health authorities as yet.
Shorten:
Worryingly both the staff member who recorded positive but one resident, possibly two, but one resident who appears to have contracted Covid were both vaccinated in the first round, so it just emphasises to me and I think to everyone listening that two vaccinations is what we need and when I heard the federal government saying one vaccination somehow is a goal, well, as I understand it, it is only secondhand reports from the facility, but the people who are sick actually had had a vaccination, so you need two. One is not enough.
Updated
We should receive the Victorian numbers very soon.
Yesterday, there were five locally acquired cases. It’s the mystery case which has authorities worried – cases which can’t be linked to a previous infection tend to be the ones which extend lockdowns.
Hopefully we will find out very soon what the state of play is.
Updated
And the Oz has reported the LNP has blocked Queensland MP George Christensen’s bid for the $105,600 “resettlement” allowance after he announced his decision to quit the federal parliament at the next election.
The allowance is open to MPs who are disendorsed or lose their seat – anyone who “retires involuntarily”. Christensen announced his own retirement.
Updated
Meanwhile, Sarah Martin has an Andrew Laming update:
The controversial Liberal MP Andrew Laming, who returned to parliament earlier this month after undergoing empathy training, has defended another $15,000 in grants that went to organisations run by a local LNP branch president, Guardian Australia can reveal.
In the latest round of the Stronger Communities grant program in Laming’s electorate, two grants were awarded to Redlands Salad Bowl and Community Connections Redlands Coast, both of which were co-founded by the president of the Liberal National party’s Redlands branch, Craig Luxton.
The secretary of both organisations is Laming’s own electorate officer, Stephanie Eaton.
Updated
Australia is still waiting to learn who its ambassador from the US will be under the Biden administration – Axios has reported it could be a Kennedy.
The US media network reports that Caroline Kennedy, who served as a second ambassador to Japan during the Obama administration, is in line for Canberra.
Updated
AAP has the latest on the mystery Covid case in a Melbourne aged care home:
A Melbourne aged care worker’s “mystery case” has authorities worried, as fellow staff members and residents prepare for more COVID-19 testing and vaccinations.
Arcare Maidstone residents were locked down and placed into self-isolation on Sunday after a female healthcare worker at the facility tested positive.
The Altona woman worked at the site in the city’s northwest on Wednesday and Thursday and may have been infectious at the time.
Arcare chief executive Colin Singh said no other staff members or residents had returned positive results but further testing was planned for Tuesday.
“We know this is an anxious time, but we ask that you please do not call asking for the results,” Mr Singh wrote in a letter.
The Altona woman, one of five local cases reported on Sunday, tested positive despite receiving her first coronavirus jab on May 12.
Only a third of Arcare Maidstone’s 110 staff and 53 of 76 residents have been vaccinated so far, and the federal government has brought forward scheduled vaccinations to Monday.
Updated
Good morning
Happy Monday, everyone.
Welcome back to Guardian Australia – you have a hybrid blog today. Parliament isn’t sitting as it’s Reconciliation Day in the ACT and therefore a public holiday, but all the MPs are still in town, which means you get a dose of politics.
But of course, most attention is on Victoria and the fourth lockdown, particularly as authorities try to work out the link to a mystery Covid cases – a person who worked in an aged care facility.
People who are vulnerable to Covid were meant to have been vaccinated by Easter. At the end of May, we still have aged care homes where no doses of the vaccine have been administered.
What we did get this weekend though, was the deputy prime minister, and senior ministers, argue about whether it should be a “race” or not to vaccinate Australians against a virus which has caused a worldwide pandemic.
While Dumb and Dumber got snagged on whether the vaccination rollout was or wasn’t a race, the Victorian government changed the politics of the pandemic. Some commentary on today’s events #auspol https://t.co/1cvn0VUFsP
— Katharine Murphy (@murpharoo) May 30, 2021
We’ll cover everything that’s happening in Canberra, Victoria and anywhere else you need to know about.
You’ve got Amy Remeikis with you for most of the day, along with the Guardian brains trust. It’s a chilly day in Canberra so it’s already a two-coffee and a tea situation – hope you’re warm and ready to get into it.
Updated
